Scary thought: We almost lived in a world where a tactical wizard-on-wizard RPG from the creator of X-COM would never have been. Julian Gollop's Chaos Reborn Kickstarter campaign teetered between nabbing the public's monetary thumbs-up or the eldritch maw of oblivion as it entered its final week of funding earlier this month, with Gollop himself tweeting the "nail-biting conclusion" of the drive's dwindling hours. At the 34-hour mark, the campaign's Summon Moneydollars spell finally reached the $180,000 goal, climbing over $210,000 in funding by the timer's end.

A likely huge help to push along Reborn into life was the release of a rough demo for striving sorcerers to try out the turn-based spellslinging and monster-wrangling multiplayer modes. Gollop also wrote up a lengthy explanation on Reborn's single-player side , a more story-driven mode of an apprentice mage gathering power through random encounters and defeating powerful wizard lords. Appropriate wizard battle soundtrack is optional but highly recommended.

The added cash at the campaign's end also hit the first stretch goal to translate Reborn into a number of European languages including German, Italian, and Spanish. The final tally just missed the secondary stretch goal of iOS and Android ports, but the game's flexibility with the Unity engine and web plug-in and potential further funding through Steam Early Access gives hope for eventual multi-platform releases.